Election Shifts

After a short break from campaigning frenzy and rushed election activity, New Yorkers may have forgotten about the city’s upcoming mayoral election. Just in case, here is an update: important endorsements—or lack of, what they might mean in a changing political landscape, and changes in candidates.

As governor of New York, Kathy Hochul is a prominent state democrat who recently wrote a NYT opinion guest essay endorsing Zohran Mamdani, the democratic, socialist candidate who I’ve discussed in more length in a previous post. She has previously publicly disagreed with some of his agendas in the past, such as his controversial plan to raise taxes for wealthier residents, but ultimately chose to support him.

The city’s current mayor, Eric Adams, also chose to drop out of the race earlier this month, on a Sunday. As one of the top contenders, the independent candidate’s decision will likely have a significant impact on the race– but not necessarily enough to change the result. Despite his campaign’s achievements and his best efforts, he claimed he could no longer see a path to re-election, and will end his stint in office by the end of this year. The mayor did not endorse any of the other candidates, instead seemingly opposing them by choosing to offer warnings to voters instead.

It’s mostly common knowledge by now that the president, Donald Trump, thinks highly unfavorably of Zohran Mamdani, and he has suggested two nominees drop out so that the remaining candidate, Andrew Cuomo, will have a higher chance of defeating the democrat. Trump has dismissed Curtis Sliwa, the republican nominee, suggesting he should leave the race; he has refused to do so thus far.

Mamdani still maintains a comfortable lead in the polls, but we’ll have to wait and see if any big shifts happen in the wake of these new changes.